Recent years have been witness to many changes permitted as a result of technological advancements. Many new services are, for example, now available and used by many, made possible due to such technological advancements.
For instance, communication services, together with the network infrastructures and devices through which such services are provided, are now available and regularly used by many. Cellular, and other analogous, wireless communication systems are exemplary of the new communication services that have been developed and deployed, which take advantage of technological advancements. Successive generations of cellular communication systems have been deployed, each providing improved communication services and capabilities. New-generation, cellular communication system, for instance, provide significant data communication capabilities.
Typically, communications are carried out in a cellular, or cellular-like, communication system through use of a portable wireless device that includes transceiver circuitry. A portable wireless device is typically of compact dimensions to permit a user of the device to hand-carry the device. Users of such wireless devices, as a result, regularly hand-carry a wireless device and thereby have the wireless device available to use to communicate there through whenever the user elects, as long as the user is positioned within the coverage area of a cellular, or other analogous, communication system.
Some wireless devices provide additional functionalities, in addition to the functionalities provided by the transceiver circuitry. And, such a wireless device forms a multi-functional device that has multiple functionalities.
A wireless device sometimes, for instance, includes camera functionality. The camera functionality, typically implemented through use of a camera module, provides for the recordation of an image. Once recorded, the data forming the image is subsequently displayable at an image display element, either an image display element of the wireless device, or a display element positioned elsewhere. Existing wireless devices are capable, for instance, of transmitting the data representative of the recorded image by way of the cellular communication system to a remote location for storage or display thereat. The camera functionalities of some wireless devices, in addition to being capable of recording still images also are capable of recording video sequences. And, wireless devices having such capability are also typically capable of transmitting the recorded video sequences to remote locations by way of the cellular communication system.
Camera modules of portable wireless devices are usually dimensionally constrained. That is to say, the physical dimensions permitted of the camera module are limited due to the need to minimize the physical dimensions of the portable wireless device. And, due to this constraint, the capabilities of the camera functionality are sometimes also limited.
For instance, the size of a sensor that senses light energy during the image recordation procedure is limited due to this constraint. The sensor includes pixels that sense the receive light energy of different colors, and the limitation of the size of the sensor limits the number pixels that are available to sense the light energy. This limitation is particularly problematical in low-light conditions as there is a lesser amount of light energy incident at the available pixels, and the resultant, recorded image is of reduced quality.
The size constraints imposed upon camera modules also limits the size permitted of a camera lens. And, due to this limitation, the use of a low F-stop camera lens, for a given focal-length lens, is limited.
Therefore, existing camera modules that are size-constrained, such as camera modules used at portable wireless devices, suffer from various deficiencies that limit the quality of recorded images that can be obtained.
It is in light of this background information related to devices having camera functionality that the significant improvements of the present disclosure have evolved.